Soldier
by Mysteriol
Summary: Recapturing the essence of one Tala Ivanov. From his past in the abbey to GREV, moments that remind us of the reasons why he is undisputable in the beyblading arena.


soldier 

_recapturing the essence of one tala ivanov. From his past in the abbey to G-REV, moments that remind us of the reasons why he is undisputable in the beyblading arena. _

_A/N: _

_me and my never-ending craze over Tala Ivanov. It's a wonder why I still haven't enlarged a picture of him and paste it on my bedroom wall, or paint my walls the color of his uniform - orange, blue and white. anyway, I saw a bag that's totally orange, blue and white, so much like Tala's outfit! And I'm saving up to buy it. Whee. _

_Before I continue digressing, I have to stress that this fic is a product of my incessant worshipping craze over the beyblader. Basically, it's _**VERY VERY LONG **_, and i'll advise you to read it only if you have the time and the stamina to devour the whole thing! It's 2400+ words, and probably the longest thing I've ever wrote for a one-shot since the days of my ExT fandom-ing. _

_Dives back into Tala's past experiences in the abbey, to the point where he is comatose in GREV. Mostly an introspection that brings out the qualities of why we all love the team captain of Blitzkrieg Boys so SO damn much. throw in some stupid literary techniques, and present tenses i've decided to use here as an experimentso don't flame too badly because it's the first time I'm trying these stuff out!_

_loves_

_mysterio000_

They push him, harshly.

Closer, closer, into the cylindrical cell that they call 'home' for him. He is a skeptic, though, and he knows the procedure is far from what they say. Rumors has it that it is painless, but he knows better. Tala Ivanov has been through it far too many times he wishes to remember.

But he does not struggle, nor fight back. He does not fear pain.

He takes a step inside, and a 'thud' sounds. He looks around. A dozen pair of eyes stare back at him. His vision is now green, and filled with bubbling substances.

And he does not remember what is next, except for the needles that pierce through his skin, seeking deeper and deeper. The pain that blinds him is so intense for a minute, but in the next, he forgets to feel anything anymore.

He is used to all of this.

"Our perfect soldier," he hears a triumphant exclaim, "Cyber-Tala!"

_A humanoid robot, they say. _

Firstly, he becomes the star blader at the abbey. Basking in the likes of many people, was compared to people much more inferior. "Look at him, learn from him! Tala is an incredible blader! Won't you just learn from him?"

And everyone showers him with praises and compliments, but he does not take it in his stride. Tala hates attention, and he merely turns a cold shoulder to all of them who casts him envious glances and admiring gazes.

All are a deception. Betrayers. Don't believe them, he tells himself.

"Tala, you're amazing!" Boris always flashes a thumbs-up when he steps down from the beydish, Wolborg in hands. Tala walks down, and turns away, scoffing, crossing his arms.

He knows he is amazing, he knows he's a better blader than anyone else in the abbey. But he hates compliments, he hates the utter sauciness and excess sweetness in their tones.

A bunch of liars.

_He is right. _

"You rat! You sneaky bastard!" Boris slaps him.

Tala falls to the ground, eyes seething in rage, but he tries to tell himself to calm down. He holds a palm to his bruised cheek, and gives all his might into glaring one Boris down. He bites on his lips to prevent himself from snapping back, so much so that blood begins to trickle down.

"Why did you lose out there in the battle with Kai today? You embarrass me to no end! Now Voltaire thinks he's so good!"

And an abbey guard steps in to continue with Tala's punishments.

Tala closes his eyes to the continuous, relentless whippings against his back.

The experiments that once ceased after he became a top-notched blader, now takes place again. Boris does not accept his perfect cyber soldier to be second-rated.

He grits his teeth, as the needles penetrate through his skin, seeking...

_His place as number one has been substituted. _

Blue eyes meet fiery, amethyst ones across the room. In between were two beds.

No one speaks for a long, long time. For a while, they merely stick to a staring contest, willing each other to break the gazes first thing first. But none does, and they continue to do so for another few good minutes, until a smirk traces Tala's lips.

"Nice to meet you, Kai."

The other boy nods in acknowledgement. "Tala." He remembers his name.

And the first string of friendship is thereby extended and form.

_He protects..._

Tala peers out from his hiding place, scans the vacant alley, and motions for Kai to do the same.

Together, they sneak away into the darkness, wearing the night like second skin.

They make their way to the tree at the backyard, where they wish to sit on the branches till the moon sets, and the sun rises in its place.

_and sacrifices. _

He opens his eyes after much efforts to do so, only to see an unsightly scene unfolding before his vision. A fist of emotions shakes him (but supposedly he is a humanoid robot ; cyborg?) - how can he feel? He does not think about it.

He needs to get out. Now.

But he is held back, by the heavy steel locks that clutch his arms together, so tightly, like vices. He tries hard not to grimace. The needles at the back of the punishment board bite at his back, snapping, _snap, snap. Prick. _

But he fails.

"Stop it!" His voice is hoarse. He needs water. "Stop it, dammit!" He flails against the metal bars against his chest. Pain. Stars.

"Stop hurting him!"

But the whippings continue against the skin of Voltaire's grandson, pained amethyst eyes beseechingly imploring blue, icy ones now hemmed with ferocity.

He knows what he has to do.

"You perverted slimeball! Moron! Bastard!" And he unleashes a litany of unholy words loudly, enough to incite the anger of the guard.

He succeeds, and the whippings continue, but against _his _skin instead.

Tala winces, as he feels the first whip, and the millionth scar opening against his chest. But he understands, to protect his friend, this pain is nothing at all.

_He forgives.. _

He knows where he's going. There's no hiding from a wolf, they say, and Kai had to agree.

"Will you come back?" He asks, with eyes that hold indecipherable emotions that even Kai cannot apprehend.

He shakes his head. "No."

He appears to understand. "I'll...see you again?" There is uncertainty and doubt arising in those eyes, and Kai can finally see the mixed swell of emotions arising. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he has just committed a grave mistake, and it cannot be forgiven.

"I..." Kai stops to think, before nodding. "Yes, we will."

But Tala knows better. The redhaired looks to the ground, looks to the side, before meeting his friend's glance once more. "We'll battle in the finals one day."

Kai nods. One day.

"Together." Tala confirms.

Kai nods, and Tala leans forward to throw the white scarf around his shoulder to wrap around Kai's neck. It is for him to keep warm in the cold Russian weather that is harsh at this season.

"Don't get caught, and if you do, then you deserve it anyway." He says, not harshly.

Kai nods, but this time, his eyes glisten a little. "I'll see you again, Tala."

"You'd better."

_but does not forget. _

Somehow, heaven's will work one way or another, and their words are true.

They are tagteam partners now, fellow Blitzkrieg Boys - he as team captain, him as star player of the team. But they don't work hand in hand. They have never battled _together _before, nor discuss strategies without internal and external conflicts.

He thinks the blunette has forgotten.

The blunette hasn't, but he wishes not to bring up the past.

Some things are better left this way, unsaid.

And they end up as strangers, foreign to each other all over again.

Slowly, the friendship back in the abbey erodes with time, and they turn their shoulders to each other. (they were friends?)

yes, but not now. Things were of the past. So much has changed.

_But he does not. _

He's still as sharp, and observant as ever. He still has the mind-blowing ability to burn a hole through your brains, and read whatever there is in there, as he did for Kai. He knew long ago his motive, why he joined the Blitzkrieg Boys in the first place for the tournaments, why he turned his back against his own Bladebreakers team.

Tala is not stupid. He's too smart for his own good, sometimes.

(but that does not explain why he accepted Kai back into his team).

Maybe that's why we say he hasn't changed abit, because, maybe all this while, he still harbors the hope of rekindling a long-lost friendship, of helping his _old friend. _

_He doesn't question anymore._

He looks at Kai, who looks into the other direction, eyes fearsome, burning with alacrity, sitting with his arms crossing his chest, his legs propped over the other. Still as cool, calm, intimidating.

Tala arches an eyebrow.

They don't speak at all, but he knows.

Kai needs the Blitzkrieg Boys for the next battle to win. He's counting on his team captain to help him fulfill his dream, his goal. Kai is selfish - (but Tala is stupid for wanting to help Kai's selfish goals even when he knows way beforehand).

True, and it annoys him, why he feels like he cannot reject his conscience for wanting to help Kai.

Maybe that's why he ends up asking Daichi to win F Dynasty, on a pretext that he himself wants a rematch with the short toddler-like kid. Truly, he is doing Kai a favor, but he does not wish to think too much into it.

Selfless, Tala? Hoping for a lost cause?

_Maybe, but he does not care. _

He gets angry.

(oh, so he's no longer a cyborg. he can feel!)

Tala feels alot of emotions now - anger, vengeance, madness, rage. All rolled into one package, aiming for his heart, ramming its core.

Boris is back.

And he knows what it means, and he does not want it to happen anymore.

He, being an experiment, is enough. He does not wish for anymore children to end up like him, committing the same mistake he did by being brainwashed by Boris, following his footsteps and ending up being 'cyberized' and injected with 'perfect genes'.

He can suffer once, yes, but he will not, _never_, allow anymore to go through the same trials and tribulations he has been through.

_Some say he is a hero. _

He enters BEGA. No, not enters. He _barges_ into BEGA headquarters, demanding to see someone who has plagued his childhood years back then. His two closest sidekicks are by his side, and with Wolborg in his arms, who is he afraid of?

No, not even Boris Balkov.

"Come out, Boris! Fight me!" He juts an index finger into the man he hates, and wishes to see burn in hell. The deepest chasms of hot flames.

_But his two friends fall instead. _

His fists are now balled, and his eyes are glaring so hard - so harsh and brutal, into Garland's.

No one hurts his teammates, his _friends _like this.

And the person shall damned well pay.

"I'll fight you!" He shouts, his voice fierce and ruthless.

Unafraid.

_Ends up fighting for freeing the children's minds... _

Tala sees Wolborg, and his heart surges.

He can take pain, he can endure it, tolerate it and bear with it even. But to know that his bit beast has to go through the same exact painful procedure makes him regret putting him through it all. His bit beast is his best _friend. _

"Hold on, Wolborg...We'll take Boris down for good, and he won't get to brainwash anymore kids." He grits his teeth, and unleashes Novae Rog.

Shiva appears. A wolf runs through the massive shell of ice, and shards of glacier breaks like shattering dust into the air. The temperature plummets beneath zero.

But still, he falls.

"Radiant Thunder!"

_who forsakes him for another. _

"GO GARLAND! YOU RULE GARLAND!"

And Tala is forgotten in the battle, once again, like back then, when he was overshadowed, second-rated to Kai.

Like they say, all heroes are always forgotten.

_Until they fall. _

He grabs the collar of Tyson's shirt, and fill him in with the details. Boris will go down for good, he knows, and he hopes he'll be there to witness it...

though the possibility of it now is highly unlikely. He can feel his own life seeping away, his past memories resurfacing, reeling into his mind like a recorded playback. He begins to see a lot of things.

He does not want to give in yet to darkness, but such a thought of sleeping forever is tempting, tempting.

He sees his family. His father and mother, smiling down at him. A car crash. His abusive foster family. The abbey. Boris's and his perverted ways. The cylindrical cells. The punishments. The whippings.

And...and there is this fuzzy image he cannot make out. Something, no, some_one. _Together with him all the time, always. Running up and down the alleys in the darkness, playing pranks on the staff, watching out for one another, laughing, hurling snowballs...

...Who?

"Hang in there, Tala!"

_Maybe he isn't forgotten..._

A flash of white catches his eyes.

And he knows what (who) has been the missing fragment in his past now.

Everything is pieced.

That missing jigsaw puzzle piece:

Kai Hiwatari.

_But he betrays you,_

Tala watches, as Kai walks to the side of the BEGA members.

He does know how to discern physical pain and emotional pain anymore, and does not wish to try furthur.

His world is shrinking.

And the sensation of his heart bursting from something (though he does not know what), is knifing him badly.

He wants to sleep.

_and your trust. _

Blue eyes meet amethyst ones for the last time.

Before they close.

All hopes that he have gathered in a little portion of his heart, now diminish, and shatter into shards of ice.

Hopes of rekindling a long-lost friendship.

Hopes of fighting together one day in the finals.

_And you're a humanoid soldier, Tala. _

He has fallen.

He now lies in the bed, in the ward, surrounded by many unknown machines beeping his heart rate. He looks like he has been a casualty to the world war, with white bandages wrapped around his pallid face. Even his blanket is white.

The picture it paints here is so...monotonous, and, just white.

Like snow. Or ice.

He is alone in the ward, comatose.

And it is significant, when a nurse walks by on her duty, only to see a single, solitary tear drop leak out from those eyelids, to trickle down the frail-colored cheeks, to land on the bed sheets.

Strange.

Tala Ivanov is supposedly a cyborg.

Cyborgs don't cry.

Humanoid robots don't feel.

Perfect soldiers don't fall.

Wolves are strong creatures.

But Tala Ivanov _cries. _

_he, _

_is human. _

**owari **

_A/N:_

_it probably got a bit confusing somewhere in between.. and , erh, yah, i just hoped by the end of the fic, my main purpose is successful! to remind all of you of the qualities we love in tala ivanov so!_

_REVIEW, and make my day more tala mad! (if that's possible!)_

_cheers,_

_mysterio000_


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